


Someone's in the Wolf

by Dickbutt



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Blood and Gore, Fake Science, Human Experimentation, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, Minor Character Death, Monster Transformation, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Multiple, Recovery, Slow Burn, Team as Family, Touch-Starved
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-27 04:37:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15016829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dickbutt/pseuds/Dickbutt
Summary: Talon's lack of ethics was no great surprise to anyone who had ever heard of them, but when the fledgling recalled Overwatch investigates a potential bio-weapon, they find the rabbit hole goes even deeper than they thought.When your humanity is stripped away, is it possible for you to become human again? Would you even remember how?





	Someone's in the Wolf

**Author's Note:**

> So, uh, this story has been a long time coming. I’m actually kind of embarrassed at how long I’ve been plucking away at drafts of this, but I’m still super excited to have gotten it off the ground. Thanks to all my followers at dickbutt-writes-again for your continued patience and support, and MASSIVE thanks to [overdrivels](http://overdrivels.tumblr.com), for all the help, for putting up with all my void-screaming, and for cheering me on as I finally did something with this. Couldn’t have done it without you <3 
> 
> (Small warning for some gore btw. I’ll try to either use applicable warnings each chapter or amend the tags if certain things become more prevalent)

“Our primary objective is intelligence,” re-emphasized Soldier 76.

In the early morning hours – or late night, depending on perspective – the strike team gathered on the outskirts of the suspected Talon facility for a final pre-mission briefing.

Tracer glanced about the dropship with trepidation; McCree met her eye, mouth drawn into a tight line. It was true that the team was overlarge for basic reconnaissance – McCree and herself, the Soldier, Genji, and Lúcio as acting field medic, to wait on the transport for their return. But there was no way such a team could do any lasting damage to any operation of that size – inconvenience at best, maybe. Tracer fought down the squirming apprehension in her gut; something bad was coming.

“We need to find out what kind of bio-weapon Talon’s researching here and why. Shutting this facility down is secondary, but if at all possible, we should make the attempt.”

She fiddled with the comm in her lap as Soldier revisited the mission objectives, patching into the available local frequencies, more as something to do with her hands than anything tactical. She picked up a murmur of a talk-radio station briefly, but other than that, all channels were suspiciously silent.

She fought to control the nervous bounce of her leg, especially after a pointed look from their team leader – or what she assumed was one, considering the visor that concealed his features. He seemed the sort.

It brought a twist to her lips. She didn't know who this Soldier 76 thought he was, coming in like he was the boss of them, but if Winston trusted him enough to lead this mission, then she guessed she'd have to deal with it. It didn’t help matters that neither he nor Athena were forthcoming in any details about the man. All she knew was that he’d been stirring up trouble in Dorado – something she’d learned on her own – and that he had to have been ex-Overwatch, if not at least ex-military, by the way he acted.

His hardass personality still rankled her.

Another visual scan of the ship landed her on Genji, stone still and expression fathomless behind the visor, then Lúcio, who gave her a thumbs up and a grin, which she gladly mirrored, though it was likely strained. He didn’t seem phased in the slightest, despite all the nervous energy surrounding him, the fact he had the least exciting role notwithstanding. It was his first team assignment, and here he was getting left out of the action. But everyone had a role to play.

Eventually, Soldier’s rumbled droning came to an end and she zoned back in. After the final rundown of team positions and an adrenaline-boosting song from the audio medic, Soldier took point, and the team was off. Genji dashed forward in a blur of green, before he dimmed his lights and vanished into the near-darkness; the red line of Soldier’s visor disappeared similarly. McCree gave her a tip of his hat and a smirk before he followed after, silent; for once, spur-less.

Tracer took a deep breath – and blinked.

Decades ago, the building was probably a prison compound some sort; such infrastructure was left often to disrepair and overgrowth in the wake of the Omnic Crisis. It would be easy for Talon to surreptitiously re-purpose a structure otherwise ignored. But beyond the high walls and higher fencing, there was little sign of security obvious. Getting in was far from the hard part; if anything, it was suspiciously under-protected for what was supposed to be a high-profile Talon installation, the fence not electrified, the walls free of any external security measures, it's aging spotlights unlit. There were even weaknesses in the fencing significant enough to push aside and squeeze past, as evidenced by McCree himself.

It felt a little too much like walking into a trap for comfort, but she’d keep her thoughts to herself – at least until someone else voiced their concerns.

Separate from the rest, the silence around her was almost oppressive, nearly as cloying as the dust swirling in the stagnant air. Were it not for the power and the recent signs of activity, she’d have thought the place long abandoned. The building still had, at the minimum, auxiliary power, which was a large enough tell, though she didn’t dare to flip any lights, just in case. Tracer blinked from shadow to shadow, navigating by the sparse light in the hallways and the glow of her chronal accelerator.

But there was no one there to catch her, no active security in place on the inside either, far as she could tell; not even any security cameras, and such things would have likely been left over from when the building was still a prison. It would be easy to have Athena sweep the entire facility, of course, but that would set any potential Talon operatives present on immediate alarm. With such a lack of Talon presence – of any presence - Tracer wondered whether they were in for an actual mission at all, or if she’d spend the entire time trekking dusty, quiet corridors, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The occasional updates though her comm spoke similarly – remarks of minimal findings and no activity – as she conducted her own parallel search through dust-coated offices and defunct storage rooms. Any computers she encountered were unresponsive, and often outdated, but she was hesitant to interface with anything beyond a cursory check, still looking over her shoulder for some unseen threat, though she did make note of their locations for any later potential.

“ _You sure that we got the right place, 76?”_ drawled McCree, after a significant period of uneventful comm check-ins.

“ _The intel is good.”_ And something in Soldier’s tone said he'd take no argument to the contrary.

“ _Ain't questioning the information, just maybe wonderin’ if anyone's still home.”_

Maybe it was just that she wasn’t made for missions like this, slinking around in the shadows looking for secrets. McCree and Genji were the ex-black ops on the team, after all, and who knew what kind of background Soldier 76 had. She tossed a pile of worthless papers at her feet, scattering them across the floor. All pointless graphs and data points that led nowhere, like an obvious plant. She leaned against the offending desk with a huff, torn between wanting to focus back in or calling it quits.

“ _Y’know… someone's sure put in a lot of effort to make it look like they left in a hurry.”_

Tracer almost jarred at the sound of McCree’s voice, sudden after several minutes of radio silence. But his words made sense – almost too much. The place was put together, too deliberately disheveled and inoperable, to be truly abandoned. Perhaps the nagging suspicions at the back of her mind weren’t completely unfounded.

“You too, then?” she spoke, after untangling herself from her own thoughts.

He gave a thoughtful hum in response.

“ _Thinkin’ now our friends at Talon’re trying to throw us offa their trail.”_ He laughed like his teeth were clenched. “ _Wonder if they knew they were coming.”_

Soldier's growling timbre rolled over the comm. The back of her neck prickled in discomfort.

“ _You trying to say something?”_

“ _Trying to say we might’ve been led right into a trap.”_

The line fell uncomfortably silent, the energy tense under McCree’s passive accusation. Thankfully, before an argument could come of it, Genji – silent up until then – came over the comm.

“ _I have found our enemy.”_ And it could have just been that she hadn’t heard from him since the start of their mission, but he sounded excited. “ _There is movement to a bunker separate from the main facility. I am ready to engage.”_

“ _Hold your position, Shimada!”_ cut in Soldier. “ _We’ll converge on you. No sense going solo with a team this size.”_

Never would she admit it out loud, but it was the first direct statement in a while from the Soldier that hadn’t had her rolling her eyes. She wasn’t entirely sure if it was a positive thing.

“ _Hey, you guys want me to group up with you?”_ came Lúcio over the comm, still on standby back on the Orca. He sounded restless.

“ _Negative. Wait for my signal.”_

Tracer gave a start. “Wait, don’t you think we might need a healer for this?”

“ _Not unless you’re expecting to actually get shot,”_ comes the wry response. “ _Besides, the kid’s green - no sense having him in harm’s way until we need him.”_

She immediately felt indignant on Lúcio’s behalf; she couldn’t imagine how he felt. The comm erupted into the noise of both she and Lúcio trying to talk over each other - _I’m not a kid’s_ overlapping _he’s got tons of experience’s_ \- countered by Soldier’s gruff dismissals. It very nearly escalated into a full blown shouting match were it not for McCree, who despite his own disagreements with the man just minutes prior, was seemingly calm.

“ _Much as I think y’all are right, I’m thinkin’ we might wanna get a move on if we’re going to finish this mission up.”_

No further words were spoken, only silent agreement. Rather than lingering, internally or externally, she blinked forward toward her objective. The anger simmering under her skin was tempered by a nervous vibration, something that only increased in intensity, perhaps going alight at the thought of the mission actually having a purpose, and coming to a head.

The corridors, eventually, gave way once again to the outdoors. The walkway she emerged onto was almost like a balcony overlooking the prison courtyard below, a large empty square that was green and overgrown like the rest of the prison’s outsides. She just barely caught sight of Genji, crouched hidden on the walkway opposite her; his visor flashed green just briefly, as if in acknowledgment. She made similarly, and crouched herself close to the wall behind her, hoping it would mute the glow of her accelerator, and settled in to wait for the remaining members of their team to arrive.

She planned to just sit tight, until her comm erupted into static, then into distinct words.

– _mean, won’t load it up?_

– _thing started freaking out – three of us –_

– _ **BANG**_ –

– _happened? Was –_

– _prototype – Ramey’s_ arm _. I mean –_

– _pay us enough to –_ _ **BANG**_ – _Spencer’s_ fucking _demon. Christ._

“...Tracer? What’s the situation?”

It was McCree’s voice, unfiltered, the cowboy crouched at her side. She turned to face him, her lips drawn into a thin line.

“Talon comms just blew up.” She relayed the information to Genji and Soldier as well. “Something about a... prototype.”

“ _Prototype?”_

“Yeah.” Her throat clenched at the clamor over her earpiece - spotty as it was. “And it doesn’t sound like any kind of ‘bio-weapon’ I’ve ever heard of.”

“ _What’s that supposed to - ?”_

Whatever he was about to say was drowned out by the high-pitched wail of an alarm. The anxious pit inside of her opened right back up.

“...They know we’re here.”

His hat shadowed his face, but Tracer still knew where McCree’s stare lay; she could just barely see the twinge of his lip. Soldier stood stiffly on the other walkway, as inscrutable as ever.

“ _Team, at the ready.”_

She hardly heard Soldier’s command in her earpiece over the sound of mounting panic below. The courtyard was awash with activity, a cacophony of alarms and shouts. As quickly as the alarms, a swarm of Talon agents descended on the area, armed and armored, and yet they completely ignored the upper ramparts where the Overwatch agents lay tensely in wait. A quiet curse came from McCree at her left and her body unconsciously tensed in preparation for a blink.

A sudden, piercing sound, yet unidentifiable, cut through the chaos, suddenly hushed but for the continued alarm. Tracer’s skin felt chilled with a sudden clamminess, her throat constricting around a lump of fear.

...Perhaps it wasn’t their presence that had tripped the alarm after all.

As though summoned by her nervous thinking, a thunderous pounding echoed off the steel doors that separated the courtyard from the rest of the facility proper. The Talon agents brandished their weapons as the door vibrated, taking several skittish steps backwards in the process; agitated chatter bounced from comm to comm, rattling in Tracer’s ear. She heard the click of Peacekeeper’s hammer through the din; the grip on her own weapons tightened despite her sweat-slicked palms.

The heavy doors buckled outward –

\- and the air was shattered by a shrieking _roar._

The thing that came barreling into the Talon forces was out of a nightmare – a mass of fur and teeth and claws, with eyes aglow, easily twice as large as Reinhardt. More Talon agents swarmed out of the compound behind it, and she watched with both fear and awe as they tried, and failed, to control it. It stood on its hind legs and let loose another unholy sound, cementing in the fact that yes, this was probably the prototype the Talon operatives were so concerned about.

The creature swiped its arms from left to right, knocking its would-be wranglers against walls and out of its way; its snapping jaws dealt effectively with the rest, who fled out of its range lest they meet an unsavory end. The screams of the Talon forces proved a valuable distraction and at Soldier’s word, they made their move further into the facility. There was no doubt, however, that they would go unnoticed by their enemies for long, but it seemed that Talon was infinitely more concerned about the creature that had gotten loose than the Overwatch agents lurking among them.

But it would be something to deal with later in their mission, once their objective had been reached.

The route downward, thankfully, was mostly unimpeded, the bulk of Talon agents in the compound proper likely caught up in dealing with their furry problem. They were able to dispatch the few that saw – or cared – about their sudden appearance. Gunshots still echoed in the distance, put in stereo by her earpiece. She made a conscious effort to block it out.

In the cellars, the scene was a lot closer to what Tracer had been expecting from the outset. The automated security protocols in place were easily dispatched, and they found before them a moderately sized lab, dotted throughout with workstations and well-used equipment. It was in disarray, and several pieces looked to be missing, but it was more in line with something hurriedly abandoned than the carefully constructed facade upstairs. Broken glass and small debris crunched underfoot as they picked through the room.

“ _\- fall back!” -_ _ **EIIIIIIAAAGHHHHHHH “**_ – _ility’s been breached!”_

“ _What about the prototype?”_

“ _Fuck it, we got bigger problems!”_

Tracer shook her head at the noise, adjusting the settings on her comm again. An ominous looking cage setup stood empty at the back of the room, its door swinging loose on its hinges, the metal bent at a severe angle; it sent a shiver down her spine. It was the only one of its kind in the lab, which was somewhat incongruous, if they’d been conducting animal testing here… But there were likely more further in, perhaps in the bunker Genji had mentioned. A steel door stood not further away, the likely exit.

Soldier had halted at a computer hub, which was connected to the only active terminal she’d seen the entire mission so far, and she gathered in with the others. He hooked a data drive into it and linked up his comm, and the sight of Athena’s bright blue logo appearing on the monitor gave a little ease to her heart. The ceiling trembled and dust rained down. Sounds of shouting still echoed distantly in Tracer’s earpiece.

“A data scrub has already been initiated in Talon’s systems,” the AI intoned, followed by a loud curse from Soldier. “I will attempt to disrupt the process and salvage all available data. ...Estimated time: Twenty-five minutes.”

The Soldier grunted and hefted his pulse rifle against his shoulder before he settled into a kneeling stance. His visor lit up in a flash of red, casting an eerie glow in the low light of the lab space.

“Shimada, McCree – get into that bunker. Get whatever information you can.”

Genji gave a word of assent before he made for the steel door; McCree’s only answer was a long, hard stare before he turned to follow the cyborg. Tracer then found herself under the focus of his red glare.

“Tracer, head back topside, rout any Talon soldiers that head this way. If they didn’t know we were here yet, they sure do now.”

She nearly shuddered at the thought of seeing whatever that prototype was again, but she nodded, and streaked away in a blur of blue.

The prison still thundered with the sound of shouts and movement, but she couldn’t hear the… _screams_ , of the prototype. Had they killed it themselves? Gunfire was almost nonexistent, it was likely the case.

She blinked out of the way of a gunshot, just in time for it to pass through the space where she’d just been standing. Two Talon soldiers fully rounded the bend and took aim again, with some talk of switching to lethal rounds. It was child’s play to dodge around them, to sting back with hits of her own, and the familiarity of combat had her previous apprehension fading into the backdrop.

But lulled as she was by the familiar motions, it took her an inordinate amount of time to realize that two Talon soldiers became three – became five. She flitted between them, dodging more than striking as she was gradually outmaneuvered, and she listened desperately for Athena or her teammates.

“ _Seventeen_ _minutes remaining.”_

Her initial attempts to incapacitate became a fight for her life. Soldier was silent at his post; she had likely drawn the attention of any Talon soldiers that would have headed his way, though she wasn’t sure if she should have been glad for it or not. She received no confirmation of what McCree and Genji had found in the bunker, or if it was anything at all. Even if she reached out to them – even Lúcio – for help, she doubted they’d reach her in time to be of any use.

And then she fumbled.

On the tail end of a jump, the sharp, metallic _ping_ of a bullet echoed off the accelerator and next thing she knew, she was sprawled on the ground, limbs tingling. As her body desperately flickered, fighting to stay in the correct timeline, her earpiece burst into static, word barely breaking in between the malfunction.

“ _\- ker’s a bust! – already packed up shop n’ – take down what we can – !”_

“-- _few of us, we need to – ! If they – just make another one!”_

She came back into focus – physical and mental – just in time to realize she’d been definitively cornered now that she lacked the ability to flee. She scrambled for her pulse pistols, dropped on the ground beside her, but struggled to get to her feet, the effects of the dissociation still lingering strong in her body. She cursed, loudly.

One of the agents spoke sharply into his helmet, though she couldn’t quite hear the words clearly, her head swimming. A shadow rose behind the group, and she thought it another trick of her woozy mind until jaws closed around the agent’s shoulders, silencing him instantly – permanently. With little effort it hauled onto its hind limbs, lift the corpse as it went, and flung it over its shoulder in a spray of blood and viscera. The soldiers remaining clearly didn’t have the courage, or numbers, to face it down, and had already begun to flee once their ally had been caught in the prototype’s teeth. But it was already too late for them. She had to squeeze her eyes shut; she couldn’t bear to watch, but there was no blocking out the screams.

Then, it was just her and the monster.

Tracer cursed her poor luck, hands clasped to her malfunctioning chronal accelerator, which blinked in warning that it was low on power. She held her breath, trying not to focus on the fact that it was coming ever closer, scenting the air. She could still hear updates from her teammates, fighting their own battle against Talon, and wondered again if she’d be able to call for them before she met a terrible fate between those massive jaws. (And it was hardly a comforting realization that the beast’s head was nearly the size of her body.)

But instead, in a gentle manner that belied its fearsome appearance, it settled as close to her as it could without crushing her, though its long fur still covered a portion of her body. The mass was warm and musky, but left just enough space for her to not be engulfed in the thick, matted mess. This close, she could hear its deep, rumbling breaths, how they rattled through its lungs. It seemed completely at ease. Stunned, she distantly acknowledged the sound of an airship overhead, and squinted against the flash of a spotlight, though it was mostly blocked by the body in front of her.

After what seemed like several minutes too long, her accelerator flickered back into proper working order, enough power to continue anchoring her, and the prototype shifted, uncoiling from where it had curled, and stalked away from her prone form. The bodies and weapons of Talon soldiers littered the ground around them; she didn't really want to question this turn of events, just thankful it was them on the receiving end instead of her. Tracer sat up slowly, just as the beast swung its head around to face her.

Gold met brown and the creature's pupils blew out from slits to a rounder shape, not quite a circle, but infinitely less threatening. Tracer stood to her full height, slowly, so as to not make herself appear as a threat. It sniffed the air - or huffed, she wasn't sure - angling its head as it stared her down, a deep rumble resounding from its broad chest. If it'd had a human face, she decided it would've furrowed its brow at her, as something seemed to click in its head, its eyes clear and focused.

Did it... recognize her somehow?

Tracer peered at it curiously, a hand reaching toward its black, leathery nose. "Who- what... _are_ you...?"

It raised a long claw toward her in return, not in any intentionally threatening way , but a single digit outstretched curiously. Tracer made to grab onto it, like a twisted handshake, she thought, when gunfire erupted in the distance. The creature reared back and screeched, twisting itself to face whatever threat had made itself known again. She watched her – ally? – cross the area in just a few long steps, and just before it hauled itself over a wall, it looked over its shoulder at her, like it was making sure she was still there, before it moved on.

The moment it passed out of sight she sucked in a huge gulp of air, suddenly winded, like she’d been holding her breath the entire time the beast had been near. Her heart hammered. Just how close had she come to facing death in the jaws of a monster? She didn't know. But at least neither of them seemed to like Talon very much, so they had a common objective - enemy of her enemy and all that.

She just wondered what that meant when they ran out of Talon soldiers to fight.

More time must have passed than she had been aware of, though, because suddenly Athena chimed in with the completion of the data transfer. The roar of another aircraft passed overhead, the sound ringing in her ears.

“’ _Bout time,”_ said McCree.

She sagged with relief, and eventually let herself come to rest against a wall, though she didn’t dare settle to the ground, despite the protests of her aching legs. Minutes went with no further update, and if she weren’t so exhausted from the events, she’d have been a little more worried she didn’t immediately jump to attention at the sound of footsteps. Soldier marched toward her, rifle held at the ready.

“Oxton. You alright?”

“Yeah,” she forced, with as much energy as she could muster.

At his prolonged, silent stare, her posture drooped, just slightly. If he was curious about the scattering of fallen Talon soldiers, he chose not to say anything of it. Rather than addressing her again, he turned on his comm.

“Shimada, McCree – report in.”

“ _McCree here._ _Headin’ back from the bunker now. Genji’s double checkin’ to make sure it’s clear. Found a couple’a stragglers after the first dropship took off.”_

“Did you find anything we could use?”

“ _Nah, just more of the same – or less, actually. Weren’t shit to show for anything except a bunch of empty crates and dropped equipment.”_ He grumbled something under his breath before he spoke more clearly. “ _Found a guy with half ‘n arm, but he was mostly delirious with blood loss by the time we got to him. Didn’t make it.”_

Soldier grunted noncommittally.

“ _And what should be done about Talon’s prototype?”_ chimed in Genji’s modulated voice.

Tracer felt a sudden twinge in her chest.

“Subdue it. We can’t have that thing getting out of here and running loose.”

Though ‘subdue’ was the word used, she swallowed a lump in her throat knowing that he meant it in a more extreme sense. She wasn’t certain why a feeling of dread had settled over her at the thought of killing the prototype, a creature proven to be a danger.

...Was it just because it had protected her?

“ _Where do you believe it could have gone?”_

“ _I mean, the thing’s huge. How hard can it be to hide?”_

“...Right,” she sighed, and stood straight, prepared to go on the hunt.

“Not you,” huffed Soldier, and she threw him a look of exasperation. “You aren’t in any shape to go running off on your own again. I’m calling in Santos to look you over and then you’re heading back to the ship. The rest of us can handle cleanup.”

She rolled her eyes. “Okay, _sir._ ”

He was barely out of earshot before she dashed off in the other direction, still a little too nervous to Blink. She wasn’t about to listen to some obstinate old man about what she _should_ be doing, especially when she’d spent the entire mission disagreeing with near everything that came out of his mouth. She wanted to find the prototype first, though she wasn’t entirely sure what she planned on doing if she did, if she could even _do_ anything.

Her path eventually took her back to the courtyard, the area silent and strewn with the bodies of the enemy. She was startled by the wet thud of a large object before her, and found herself suddenly sickened by the realization that it was the mangled upper half of a Talon agent. She – very hesitantly – followed the path of its descent with her eyes and met the wild-eyed gaze of the prototype, crouched on the ledge above her, tensed to spring. The lower half of the agent was still clenched tightly in its snarling jaws.

Its face held none of the recognition of their prior encounter.

Stomach turning, she stumbled backwards in an attempt to Blink, but her accelerator only flashed warningly – still low on power – and she froze. Her chest ached with a stabbing pain, and though it made no move to attack, its slitted eyes followed her – hungrily. In a slow, deliberate motion, she turned on her comm.

“I… I found the prototype.”

At the sound of her tremulous voice, it growled, and she fought against flinching, every nerve in her body alight.

“ _Tracer?”_ Came McCree’s concerned timbre. “ _Where are you?”_

She chanced a step backward, more a slide of her foot against the earth, quietly hoping she could stall long enough for just enough power. Just one jump. She swallowed past the lump of fear in her throat.

“…M’ gonna need some backup, luvs.”

“ _Tracer!”_

Several things happened at once.

Whether it was the noise or her movement or the scent of fear, something prompted the beast to drop the grisly remains it held and take the leap. Her comm became a mess of voices yelling for her, louder still once she screamed. A flash of green cut through the air at her side.

Tracer gave a start when she realized she was on the ground, even more that she was unharmed, but for some bruising on her backside. The beast’s arm was again outstretched toward her, hanging in the air; the armored form of Genji stored between them, protective. The beast’s eyes stared widely ahead, meeting Tracer’s – shocked, then, unseeing. They rolled up into its skull. Genji’s blade slid free of the beast’s ribs cleanly, and the hulking mass slumped forward to the ground with a great, heaving exhale. It hardly moved but for a tremor.

The noise of the comm came rushing back into focus.

The situation is handled,” came Genji’s calm intonation, cutting through the worried shouts as he sheathed his blade. “Do not worry.”

Almost ironically, the light of Tracer’s accelerator glowed a solid blue as she returned to her feet, and stared down at the prone mass before her. Genji’s hand was at her back, steadying her even as she continued to tremble, adrenaline draining from her system. The sound of her own breathing was thunderous between her ears.

“Jesus, Lena,” sighed McCree, jogging into the scene. “Y’sure know how to scare a man.”

She was almost startled anew at his presence, having forgotten he’d forgone spurs for the mission. She gave a weak, watery laugh.

“Sorry, Jess.”

His large hand covered her shoulder, squeezing reassuringly.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just… just shaken.”

He squeezed again before he pulled away, taking a step toward the mass on the ground.

“It dead?”

McCree nudged it once in its side with the toe of his boot. As if it heard him speak, a rattling breath hissed from the prototype’s lungs, clearly a laborious effort if the way it stilled again were any indication. Still, it caused him to jump away. In any other place or time, his reaction would have been humorous, but as it was, Tracer’s heart only ached as the beast went still again.

“What part of _stay put_ do you not understand?”

Soldier stomped toward them, posture stiff, Lúcio skating along behind him. He didn’t sound so much angry as he did resigned, though his hands still clenched around his pulse rifle as though he expected Talon to turn around and come back to fight them. Lúcio peered curiously past him, at the carnage of the grounds, at the monstrous mass lying at their feet.

“Man, what kind of party did I miss?” he joked, in an earnest attempt to ease the tension.

The sound that came out of Tracer could have been a laugh, once upon a time. McCree coughed quietly. The line of Genji’s visor turned toward Lúcio, and he shook his head minutely. The younger man grimaced and held his hands up in acquiescence.

“Okay, okay, bad time. Sorry.”

Soldier 76 leveled his gun between the bleeding beast’s eyes without another word.

“No!”

Lena looked just as surprised as everyone else by her own sudden exclamation, but she followed through, standing between the barrel of the pulse rifle and its intended target.

“Stand aside,” came the gruff remark, barked like an order. The rifle didn’t waver in his hands. “I’m putting it out of its misery.”

“No.” It came out just as firm, and she remained where she’d placed herself in the line of fire. “It’s as much a victim as anyone else! We have to… We can help it!”

McCree nearly spun to face her. “Shit, you crack your skull or somethin’? The thing just tried to take a bite outta you!”

She shook her head vehemently, voice growing stronger. “You don’t understand. It… it saved me! We can’t just… leave it here, for… for Talon to…”

Some of her own uncertainty must’ve come through, because Soldier’s posture only squared up, more determined. She was tempted to shrink back, halfway regretting even speaking up if it wasn’t going to do a thing, and the silence of her teammates helped nothing.

“Wait. It… _saved_ you?”

Her heart leapt at Lúcio’s tentative question, and she latched onto the hesitation.

“My accelerator took a hit,” she admitted, hand idly drifting to the device on her chest, “and Talon had me cornered. Then it showed up out of nowhere and took them all out!”

She hesitated to mention the time spent with the beast afterward, the eerily _human_ way it watched over her. Whatever it truly was, there had to be something more, something that didn’t deserve to die alone and abandoned.

“It’s an animal.”

“It’s _intelligent_! You’re acting like it’s something mutually exclusive! Or didja forget about Winston?”

It was halfway muffled by the modulation of his mask, but she swore she heard a scoff. “This is different.”

“Different _how?_ Because it can’t talk? Or is it because Talon made it?”

“It can’t be trusted,” came his forced words, like he was grinding his teeth.

Fury welled up inside her, threatening to explode. “Wh – _**you**_ can’t be – !”

“He may be right, Tracer.” And she whipped her head around, stunned that Genji would take his side. “We cannot be certain that the creature will not attempt to attack us once it awakens. Or even that it will survive.”

“Mercy and Winston are two of the greatest scientific minds in the _world!_ They’re bound to be able to figure something out. And if it…” She shook her head hard, determined to work past any of the negative outcomes. “They can study it, and – and get more information out of Talon’s research!”

She was grasping for straws, she knew, but she was desperate to have any of them see things from her perspective. Her saving grace came in the form of a haggard cowboy.

“I dunno about you, but I’m thinkin’ we can get more information outta a living specimen over, well...”

Soldier gave an exasperated groan. She felt a small swell of pride, in spite of everything, at having worn him down. She flashed McCree a thankful grin, which earned her a hat tip in response. There were several seconds of silence, like he was waiting for more argument to come, yet it never did.

“...Fine. We take it back.” He, at last, holstered his pulse rifle, but his posture did not relax. “But you’re the one responsible for explaining this thing to the… the people in charge.”

His words came derisively, but true to his word, he backed off, and physically stepped away to make contact with the Watchpoint, and no doubt to warn them of their additional passenger. Lúcio’s healing music kicked on and washed over the team, sending an immediate feeling of relief coursing through her body. The prototype heaved another sigh and shifted where it lay, bonelessly unconscious, but hopefully, it would survive to see proper help.

“So, how we supposed to get it on the ship?”

“Oh! Er...” Heat flooded her face. “I hadn’t actually...”

“There’s a couple of gurneys on the ship,” Lúcio said confidently, and she felt immediate relief, thankful for yet another assist. “Those could work, side by side, maybe.”

McCree shrugged. “’S good an idea as any.”

A weary smile tugged at her lips, and she glanced down at the steady light of her accelerator.

“Yeah, ‘course! I’ll just pop on back to the Orca and… ah...”

She shrunk under McCree’s flat stare; she no doubt still appeared haggard despite Lúcio’s work in effect. Soldier, of course, had wandered back to the group in time to offer his own dismissal, looking her over through the impenetrable gaze of his visor.

“You aren’t heading back to the ship on your own.”

“I will go with her,” Genji immediately offered, and Tracer straightened in surprise.

“Fine. Anyone else?” ground out Soldier.

She looked quickly to the audio-medic.

“I’ll stay here,” he offered, glancing down at the prototype. “Keep it stable.”

“Jesse, are you coming?” asked Genji.

“Nah, think I’ll hang back too,” he drawled. And nobody missed the way he looked pointedly at Soldier 76. “Just in case.”

“Very well.” The cyborg turned to Tracer with a slight incline of his head. “Shall we?”

It was faster, but no less exhausting, taking the direct route back through the facility, ignoring every side hall through which they’d crept. They left through the hole in the fence found by McCree near the start of their mission (already feeling like ages ago), and crossed the wide field in amicable silence, to the distant sound of birdsong.

“Hanzo is going to regret not coming,” Genji eventually said, casually, though with an underlying tone that she couldn’t quite identify. “He missed a fun time.”

“That’s…. one way to describe it.”

As they drew nearer to the Orca, she barely noticed as Genji slowed his pace to match hers, eventually dropping into step with her.

“Are you sure you’re all right, Lena?”

The question almost made her flinch, though she was sure it was one she would be hearing a lot more in the foreseeable future, especially once the mission debriefs were over with.

“No. But I will be,” she answered truthfully. “A good night’s rest back on base and I’ll be right as rain!”

He chuckled good-naturedly and gave her a pat on the shoulder, before resuming his long strides. “If you’re certain.”

Something inside her tensed at his words. There was little she could be certain about, after this.

She could only hope it would all work out.


End file.
